[FIC] Sense and Sensibility (13/16)
Title: Sense and Sensibility, Chapter Thirteen
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Pairing: Eventual Zutara, mentions of Sokka/Suki
Wordcount: 1718
Warnings: none
Summary: Four years after the end of the war, Fire Lord Zuko is told he has two weeks to choose a bride from a group of five girls. Luckily, Uncle Iroh stacked the deck.
Author's Notes: I'm archiving things, so this one (which is my longest finished story to date) was written before season three premiered. Thus it is technically an AU. Chapter titles are from the musical Camelot, because I am a giant dork.
---Chapter Thirteen: I Loved You Once In Silence---
The morning of April 17th did not dawn clear and warm, as so many of the royal weather-predictors had assured Lady Junbi. Instead the dawn was barely visible, for the sky was dark with clouds that threatened rain by their pure grayness. Lady Junbi only went outside long enough to scowl at them before she returned to ordering people around. After all, everything had to go exactly according to plan on the Fire Lord’s wedding day.
--Four Years Earlier--
Zuko was more dead than alive when they found him lying face-down in a puddle.
It had been just over a week since the fall of Ba Sing Se, and it was raining. The Avatar and his friends had dropped the Earth King off in a village three days ago, and now they were landing to make camp for the night or just until the rain stopped, whichever came first.
Toph was the one who found him first. It had been Toph, a week before, who left their campsite late at night and returned in the morning with Iroh. She would not tell them how she had rescued the old man, and her friends eventually stopped asking. Toph felt Zuko’s presence the moment she slid off Appa and set foot on the ground. She gave no opinion as to what should be done with him. It wasn’t that Toph didn’t have an opinion, only that she chose to listen and wait. Iroh followed that same strategy, displaying remarkable poise considering it was his nephew they found half-dead.
Sokka and Aang wanted to leave the exiled prince where he was and find another campsite. Katara climbed down, knelt next to Zuko, and turned him over, shocking her brother and the Avatar into silence.
Zuko’s clothes, finer than those she’d last seen him in, were torn and dirty. His face was bruised, and Katara instinctively used her waterbending to explore his injuries. Both arms, the left wrist, left ankle, right leg, and at least three ribs were broken. Katara winced at the extent of the damage. He could survive, if she healed him. She felt that she should hate him for the things he’d done, not just to her but to all of them. She wanted to agree with Sokka and Aang; she wanted to leave Zuko behind and never think of him again. She knew she couldn’t.
“We’re staying,” Katara said firmly. “Toph, could you build a bigger earth tent? Maybe against those rocks, so we can keep him out of the rain?”
--------
Zuko woke to the persistent patter of rain on the rock slab over his head. He blinked in confusion at the blue eyes watching him.
Sokka stood up. “I suggest you don’t move. Katara says your bones aren’t completely healed yet.” He reached the entrance of the make-shift shelter. “You’re lucky,” Sokka told Zuko. “Katara’s the one who saved you. I would have let you die.” He vanished from view.
Zuko willed away the headache he could feel forming at his temples. Any other time he would have denied the “lucky” comment. Why had Katara rescued him? The last thing he remembered was Azula’s voice telling someone to “dispose of him.” Before that everything was hazy and confusing, the only clear thing a cool hand on his cheek and concerned blue eyes looking up at him.
“Hello, Zuko,” Katara’s voice said softly. The exiled prince tried to sit up, despite Sokka’s warning, only to find that his arms wouldn’t support him. Pain shot through his left wrist, and he fell heavily back to the ground. Katara was at his side immediately, her water flask ready. She explored his wrist with her fingertips first, using the water to heal it when he flinched slightly.
He couldn’t help but stare at her uncharacteristically stoic face. “What happened to you?” he blurted, realizing instantly that he had no right to ask.
Blue eyes met gold yet again, but Katara’s expression didn’t change. “You did.”
Zuko swallowed with difficulty and looked away. “I’m sorry,” was all he could manage to say, knowing that how he truly felt could not possibly be expressed in words alone.
“And what if you being sorry isn’t good enough?” Katara asked. Her tone was somehow as neutral as her face.
Zuko was silent for a moment. “Then you should have left me to die,” he said finally.
Katara opened her mouth to give him a nasty retort, but found that none would come to her. Did she pity him, the twice-banished prince who carried scars on his heart far more disfiguring than the one on his face? No, to pity Zuko was to regard him as something lesser than herself; to do that was to follow Azula’s example. So she did not pity him. He pitied himself too much; he did not need her pity. Then what was it about him that had insisted she not leave him? “I couldn’t,” she said softly. It was the only thing she was sure of anymore.
“Why not?” Zuko asked. His voice wasn’t bitter or mocking. It was an honest, simple question. Except that it wasn’t simple at all.
Katara’s mask broke, and she turned away before Zuko could see her eyes as they began to fill with tears. She didn’t know why she was crying, and she couldn’t stop it any more than she could have stopped the rain outside from falling.
“I just couldn’t,” she whispered. Katara cleared her throat and stood up. “Your uncle’s been very worried about you. I’m going to tell him you’re awake.” She left without looking at him again.
It was another day before Zuko could walk, and when he did so, he had to lean on Katara. Sokka poked his still-tender ribs, hoping to get a reaction from the volatile firebender. Instead Katara swatted him away.
--Present Day--
Lady Junbi bustled into Katara’s suite of rooms, full of her usual self-importance and followed by a number of servants with the intention of “helping” prepare the princess for the wedding, which was to be held in four hours.
She found Vana sitting in one of the chairs, calmly embroidering a piece of red cloth.
“Where is the princess?” Lady Junbi demanded.
Vana didn’t even look up from her work. “Princess Katara is not here, Lady Junbi. However, if she were, she would be most displeased at your failure to address me properly.”
Lady Junbi stared at the young woman. “What are you talking about, girl? If the princess isn’t here, where is she?”
Vana still didn’t look up. “More than a week ago Princess Katara made me the head of her ladies-in-waiting, which makes my rank higher than yours. In her absence, I ask that you please remember your manners.”
Lady Junbi’s eyes were furious, but she pursed her lips and curtsied. “Forgive me, my lady. Would you perhaps know where the princess is?”
Vana smiled. “Of course, Lady Junbi. Princess Katara is at Roku’s Temple, where she and the Fire Lord will most likely be wed within the hour. Prince Sokka, Lady Suki, Lady Toph, and the Avatar have accompanied them. They all send their regrets, but it will be quite impossible for them to attend the wedding you planned.”
Vana would always remember, with a satisfied smile, the sight of Lady Junbi with her mouth hanging open in utter shock and disbelief. It was, Vana decided, rather like a fish. She stood and placed her work on the chair. “They asked that you make the appropriate apologies to the guests.”
--Roku’s Temple--
One of Zuko’s early acts as Fire Lord, aside from rebuilding the palace, canceling the summer solstice festival, and helping everyone else rebuild, was to commission the rebuilding (Zuko discovered a liking for architecture, which made the vast amount of work to be done more bearable) of Avatar Roku’s Temple. Aang not only approved and supported this venture, he helped design the new temple. Five sages were once more employed as guardians of the temple, and Shyu had been made Head Sage. Toph, who had never been near an active volcano, found the place fascinating and mentioned a desire to live there. She was only half-joking.
It was not long before Zuko and Katara stood before the five Fire Sages, facing each other and holding hands. Aang and Sokka stood to Zuko’s right, Toph and Suki to Katara’s left, all facing the pair. The head sage spoke: “As the sun and moon are bound to the sky, so you have chosen to bind yourselves to each other. Declare your love that the spirits may hear and approve.” He bowed to Zuko, indicating that the Fire Lord should speak first. Zuko cleared his throat nervously. Katara smiled at him, and he smiled back.
“If someone had told me the day we first met that I would be standing where I am now, doing what I am doing, I would not have believed them. I might have called them crazy, and I probably would have had them executed for saying such a thing. Much has changed since that day. I have changed.
“I love you, Katara. Even when we’re both frustrated to the point that we can’t look at each other without yelling, I love you. I can think of nothing I want more than to spend the rest of my life with you.”
Katara looked down at their hands. “We come from two different worlds, and yet we are together. The time you were my enemy was brief, intense, and has been far outweighed by the time that we were friends… and more than friends.
“I came to the Fire Nation as your friend. I never realized that I would find myself in love with you, but I’m glad it happened. When I leave the Fire Nation this afternoon, it will be as your wife. I’m glad of that too.”
The head sage smiled at them. “History is made, and the let the people record it: Fire Lord Zuko and Princess Katara of the Southern Water Tribe are now husband and wife. What the spirits have joined together let no man separate.”
Everyone just smiled for a moment. Toph rolled her eyes. “Well, kiss her already!” Aang, Sokka, and Suki turned to the earthbender, shocked.
Zuko took Toph’s advice.
---End Chapter Thirteen---
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Pairing: Eventual Zutara, mentions of Sokka/Suki
Wordcount: 1718
Warnings: none
Summary: Four years after the end of the war, Fire Lord Zuko is told he has two weeks to choose a bride from a group of five girls. Luckily, Uncle Iroh stacked the deck.
Author's Notes: I'm archiving things, so this one (which is my longest finished story to date) was written before season three premiered. Thus it is technically an AU. Chapter titles are from the musical Camelot, because I am a giant dork.
---Chapter Thirteen: I Loved You Once In Silence---
The morning of April 17th did not dawn clear and warm, as so many of the royal weather-predictors had assured Lady Junbi. Instead the dawn was barely visible, for the sky was dark with clouds that threatened rain by their pure grayness. Lady Junbi only went outside long enough to scowl at them before she returned to ordering people around. After all, everything had to go exactly according to plan on the Fire Lord’s wedding day.
--Four Years Earlier--
Zuko was more dead than alive when they found him lying face-down in a puddle.
It had been just over a week since the fall of Ba Sing Se, and it was raining. The Avatar and his friends had dropped the Earth King off in a village three days ago, and now they were landing to make camp for the night or just until the rain stopped, whichever came first.
Toph was the one who found him first. It had been Toph, a week before, who left their campsite late at night and returned in the morning with Iroh. She would not tell them how she had rescued the old man, and her friends eventually stopped asking. Toph felt Zuko’s presence the moment she slid off Appa and set foot on the ground. She gave no opinion as to what should be done with him. It wasn’t that Toph didn’t have an opinion, only that she chose to listen and wait. Iroh followed that same strategy, displaying remarkable poise considering it was his nephew they found half-dead.
Sokka and Aang wanted to leave the exiled prince where he was and find another campsite. Katara climbed down, knelt next to Zuko, and turned him over, shocking her brother and the Avatar into silence.
Zuko’s clothes, finer than those she’d last seen him in, were torn and dirty. His face was bruised, and Katara instinctively used her waterbending to explore his injuries. Both arms, the left wrist, left ankle, right leg, and at least three ribs were broken. Katara winced at the extent of the damage. He could survive, if she healed him. She felt that she should hate him for the things he’d done, not just to her but to all of them. She wanted to agree with Sokka and Aang; she wanted to leave Zuko behind and never think of him again. She knew she couldn’t.
“We’re staying,” Katara said firmly. “Toph, could you build a bigger earth tent? Maybe against those rocks, so we can keep him out of the rain?”
--------
Zuko woke to the persistent patter of rain on the rock slab over his head. He blinked in confusion at the blue eyes watching him.
Sokka stood up. “I suggest you don’t move. Katara says your bones aren’t completely healed yet.” He reached the entrance of the make-shift shelter. “You’re lucky,” Sokka told Zuko. “Katara’s the one who saved you. I would have let you die.” He vanished from view.
Zuko willed away the headache he could feel forming at his temples. Any other time he would have denied the “lucky” comment. Why had Katara rescued him? The last thing he remembered was Azula’s voice telling someone to “dispose of him.” Before that everything was hazy and confusing, the only clear thing a cool hand on his cheek and concerned blue eyes looking up at him.
“Hello, Zuko,” Katara’s voice said softly. The exiled prince tried to sit up, despite Sokka’s warning, only to find that his arms wouldn’t support him. Pain shot through his left wrist, and he fell heavily back to the ground. Katara was at his side immediately, her water flask ready. She explored his wrist with her fingertips first, using the water to heal it when he flinched slightly.
He couldn’t help but stare at her uncharacteristically stoic face. “What happened to you?” he blurted, realizing instantly that he had no right to ask.
Blue eyes met gold yet again, but Katara’s expression didn’t change. “You did.”
Zuko swallowed with difficulty and looked away. “I’m sorry,” was all he could manage to say, knowing that how he truly felt could not possibly be expressed in words alone.
“And what if you being sorry isn’t good enough?” Katara asked. Her tone was somehow as neutral as her face.
Zuko was silent for a moment. “Then you should have left me to die,” he said finally.
Katara opened her mouth to give him a nasty retort, but found that none would come to her. Did she pity him, the twice-banished prince who carried scars on his heart far more disfiguring than the one on his face? No, to pity Zuko was to regard him as something lesser than herself; to do that was to follow Azula’s example. So she did not pity him. He pitied himself too much; he did not need her pity. Then what was it about him that had insisted she not leave him? “I couldn’t,” she said softly. It was the only thing she was sure of anymore.
“Why not?” Zuko asked. His voice wasn’t bitter or mocking. It was an honest, simple question. Except that it wasn’t simple at all.
Katara’s mask broke, and she turned away before Zuko could see her eyes as they began to fill with tears. She didn’t know why she was crying, and she couldn’t stop it any more than she could have stopped the rain outside from falling.
“I just couldn’t,” she whispered. Katara cleared her throat and stood up. “Your uncle’s been very worried about you. I’m going to tell him you’re awake.” She left without looking at him again.
It was another day before Zuko could walk, and when he did so, he had to lean on Katara. Sokka poked his still-tender ribs, hoping to get a reaction from the volatile firebender. Instead Katara swatted him away.
--Present Day--
Lady Junbi bustled into Katara’s suite of rooms, full of her usual self-importance and followed by a number of servants with the intention of “helping” prepare the princess for the wedding, which was to be held in four hours.
She found Vana sitting in one of the chairs, calmly embroidering a piece of red cloth.
“Where is the princess?” Lady Junbi demanded.
Vana didn’t even look up from her work. “Princess Katara is not here, Lady Junbi. However, if she were, she would be most displeased at your failure to address me properly.”
Lady Junbi stared at the young woman. “What are you talking about, girl? If the princess isn’t here, where is she?”
Vana still didn’t look up. “More than a week ago Princess Katara made me the head of her ladies-in-waiting, which makes my rank higher than yours. In her absence, I ask that you please remember your manners.”
Lady Junbi’s eyes were furious, but she pursed her lips and curtsied. “Forgive me, my lady. Would you perhaps know where the princess is?”
Vana smiled. “Of course, Lady Junbi. Princess Katara is at Roku’s Temple, where she and the Fire Lord will most likely be wed within the hour. Prince Sokka, Lady Suki, Lady Toph, and the Avatar have accompanied them. They all send their regrets, but it will be quite impossible for them to attend the wedding you planned.”
Vana would always remember, with a satisfied smile, the sight of Lady Junbi with her mouth hanging open in utter shock and disbelief. It was, Vana decided, rather like a fish. She stood and placed her work on the chair. “They asked that you make the appropriate apologies to the guests.”
--Roku’s Temple--
One of Zuko’s early acts as Fire Lord, aside from rebuilding the palace, canceling the summer solstice festival, and helping everyone else rebuild, was to commission the rebuilding (Zuko discovered a liking for architecture, which made the vast amount of work to be done more bearable) of Avatar Roku’s Temple. Aang not only approved and supported this venture, he helped design the new temple. Five sages were once more employed as guardians of the temple, and Shyu had been made Head Sage. Toph, who had never been near an active volcano, found the place fascinating and mentioned a desire to live there. She was only half-joking.
It was not long before Zuko and Katara stood before the five Fire Sages, facing each other and holding hands. Aang and Sokka stood to Zuko’s right, Toph and Suki to Katara’s left, all facing the pair. The head sage spoke: “As the sun and moon are bound to the sky, so you have chosen to bind yourselves to each other. Declare your love that the spirits may hear and approve.” He bowed to Zuko, indicating that the Fire Lord should speak first. Zuko cleared his throat nervously. Katara smiled at him, and he smiled back.
“If someone had told me the day we first met that I would be standing where I am now, doing what I am doing, I would not have believed them. I might have called them crazy, and I probably would have had them executed for saying such a thing. Much has changed since that day. I have changed.
“I love you, Katara. Even when we’re both frustrated to the point that we can’t look at each other without yelling, I love you. I can think of nothing I want more than to spend the rest of my life with you.”
Katara looked down at their hands. “We come from two different worlds, and yet we are together. The time you were my enemy was brief, intense, and has been far outweighed by the time that we were friends… and more than friends.
“I came to the Fire Nation as your friend. I never realized that I would find myself in love with you, but I’m glad it happened. When I leave the Fire Nation this afternoon, it will be as your wife. I’m glad of that too.”
The head sage smiled at them. “History is made, and the let the people record it: Fire Lord Zuko and Princess Katara of the Southern Water Tribe are now husband and wife. What the spirits have joined together let no man separate.”
Everyone just smiled for a moment. Toph rolled her eyes. “Well, kiss her already!” Aang, Sokka, and Suki turned to the earthbender, shocked.
Zuko took Toph’s advice.
---End Chapter Thirteen---